Avon Local Schools' network sees permanent fix with new equipment

The district's network and e-mail will saw repairs last week when an important piece of equipment was installed. The repairs were timed to line up with students and staff being out on spring break while allotting time for any bumps in the server’s road to recovery.

Superintendent Mike Laub said the server is up and running, and is a “more reliable, stronger backbone.”

The network saw issues beginning Feb. 27 after a planned outage caused problems which lasted nearly two weeks. Teachers district-wide were unable to send or receive e-mails and many other functions, like PowerSchool, were unavailable. The network had been running on a temporary fix since the initial issues began.

“Our big problem was the actual box that houses all of our servers,” Laub explained. “We’re very virtualized so we have all of our servers housed in the same box so to speak, and it was that piece of machinery that was our main problem, so we replaced that and updated it.”

The total cost of equipment, parts, and labor came to $25,000. The equipment came with a five-year maintenance plan, Laub said, so any issues that may arise within the next five years are covered.

Laub said the money came from a fund dedicated to improvements district-wide, and he said this is exactly the type of improvement such contingency funds were set aside for. He added that other companies gave them quotes much higher than $25,000.

So far the improvements are working out for the schools.

“Our tech guy is very excited about how well things are working,” Laub said. “He’s keeping a close eye on it and making sure everything is going the way we would expect it to go, and it is.”

Laub said he feels this improvement was a good investment long-term investment for the district.

“We know that technology changes as we move forward but this particular piece of equipment houses all of those things that make us run, and we made sure that we purchased something that can grow with us. We’re optimistic this will have the ability to grow as we grow.”

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